J. Axel - NPS The Arizona Territory was becoming well known for its rich copper deposits. People were keen to find the next jackpot. All that was needed were investors who could purchase mining equipment, pay the salaries of the miners, and transport ore to market. First to capitalize on this tantalizing opportunity were Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leaders Samuel Adams, Samuel Cunningham, Sam O. Crosby, James Pearce, and Erastus Snow, among others. It was a long and exhausting trip by horseback out onto the remote Arizona Strip. Were those brilliantly colored samples going to be worth the trip? When the men reached this spot on the middle bench of the Grand Wash Cliffs, they discovered that indeed it was. Green and blue rocks were scattered all over the ground within a circular depression a few hundred feet wide. The men quickly filed a mining claim on June 23, 1873, in Kingman, Arizona. They named it the Adams Lode and established the Grand Gulch Mining Company. To keep the claim, the federal government required the newly established company to spend at least $100 each year (approximately $2,300 today) on mining efforts. The Grand Gulch mine was patented on October 5, 1883. Patenting a claim means that title to this 20-acre parcel and its mineral rights would be transferred from the federal government to private ownership once the company had spent at least $500 (appx. $11,500 today) mining ore. The Adams Lode would later be understood by geologists to be a breccia pipe, which is a deep but narrow sinkhole full of broken rock. These breccia pipes were being discovered all across the Grand Canyon region, although most did not contain valuable minerals. Two more copper rich breccia pipes were found just south of the Grand Gulch mine. While not as productive as the Adams Lode, they became the Cunningham and Savanic mines. Grand Gulch produced copper immediately. Three tons of ore was brought by wagon to St. George in 1876. The ore averaged an astonishing 50% copper with some specimens over 75%. This high-grade ore caused quite a stir, tantalizing locals with just how much copper was coming out of this new mine. Other breccia pipe mines on the Arizona Strip also produced high-grade ore, but the Grand Gulch mine was proving to be the richest. As ore was assayed some hoped to find gold in the deposit too. However, none was found. Still, mine owners were thrilled to learn the ore contained about 21 ounces of silver per ton. It also contained a trace amount of lead. “I had nearly forgotten the Grand Gulch!” commented a reporter in the Deseret News in 1884. “They have made another start, and we hope it will not be long before we have copper roofs.” Even though the ore was rich, profits remained hard to come by during those first decades of mining. It was very expensive to ship the ore. Imagine the frustration of having something of great value that is so diminished by transportation costs that it is barely worth the effort. The mine owners were facing the hard reality that shipping was eating up most of their profits. The mine owners likely dreamed about how wonderful it would be if a railroad spur line could be run onto the Arizona Strip to reduce shipping costs. As railroad companies were building in the region, the Arizona Strip was considered as an area to eventually establish a line. It could service the mines, the lumber mills around Mt. Trumbull and Mt. Dellenbaugh, and the cattle industry. In the end though, perhaps because of cost, no spur line was built. Still, the dreams of wealth lived on and the mine was worked intermittently for the remainder of the 19th century. Another frustration was access to water. With no surface water at the site, barrels of water had to be brought in by wagon from springs several miles up Pigeon Canyon. Water freighters added to mine expenses. Ownership of the mine passed to the Jennings family of Salt Lake City in 1882 for a reported price of $30,000 (over $1,000,000 in 2024). They made major investments in infrastructure and equipment at the mine in 1899. A few years later the train line reached Moapa, Nevada, cutting the transportation distance in half. The mine could now profitably ship ore that was as low as 30-35% copper. This lower grade ore had been kept in giant piles at the mine for years waiting for shipping costs to drop. Fortunes at the Grand Gulch mine were beginning to shift! 
Wilford Webb The piles of loose rock in the photo are only some of the overall ore that came from the mine. More incredible is the fact that all that ore was sorted by hand when it came out of the mine. Sorters wore the tips cut from rubber gloves to protect their fingers from sharp edges of the ore. As hard as it was, sorting ore was a lucrative job. In 1917 it paid $3 per day. The much more exhausting job of ‘cow puncher,’ (a cowboy for hire) paid just over $1 per day. The lowest quality ore sat in piles until the 1950s when it could be processed with chemicals that extracted the remaining copper and silver. The ore piles at the mine have already been processed. As colorful as it is, the remaining ore contains almost no copper and silver now. 
J. Axel - NPS 
J. Axel - NPS The long trench just to the east of the administration building is a water catchment that fills after rainstorms. Every drop of water that didn’t have to be delivered by freighters saved money. However, it is unknown if the trench dates from the original mine period or the 1950s. The level terraces on the hillside are also a mystery. Most likely they were for miner’s tents. The two 1930s-era Euclid dump trucks were brought to the mine in the 1950s. The pair of dugout shelters behind the headquarters building were for meat and vegetables. Most food was canned or dried. Fresh produce in season was brought in from local towns, such as melons from St. Thomas. Beef was procured from the herds of cattle that roamed the Arizona Strip. Superintendent Callaway tracked the number of cattle taken. The cow hide was saved because the rancher’s brand identified who needed to be paid. The rate for beef was about 9 cents per pound. The cooks used fresh eggs from Superintendent Callaway’s small chicken flock. Pigs were also kept here for a short time too. The Grand Gulch mine wasn’t just a man’s world. Women lived and worked here too. As was traditional for that time, women were employed as cooks and food servers, as well as housekeepers for the barracks. Broken toys in the mine dump showed that children lived here as well. 
NPS
When Othel Milne was interviewed about his time at the mine, he recalled “...I did love Maggie Averett’s raisin pies - she was a wonderful cook....Some of the women had small children out there with them.” Lydia Stevens, who worked as a waitress at the mine in the 1910s, said, “I washed dishes, made cakes and set the (table) and helped with everything that had to be done. The table was full of men at mealtimes, and we watched the water men come and go. . . . We worked seven days a week, but our evenings were free. There was a small library there, and I read books.” Women did not take part in mining. In those days, it was considered bad luck for a woman to enter a working mine. However, historian and reporter Sharlott Hall came to write a story for a Kingman, Arizona newspaper. She insisted on being taken down into the mine. This caused quite a scandal amongst the more superstitious employees. In such an isolated area, gatherings helped people feel a sense of community. As reported in the local newspaper about the 1910 Thanksgiving dinner. “Wallace Mathis, who recently returned from the vicinity of the Grand Gulch mine, brings word that the miners employed at the gulch had a splendid time Thanksgiving day. Supt. S R Callaway, of the Grand Gulch mine, invited every cattleman and anybody else who happened to be near that isolated spot to come in and partake of the dinner, which was an exceptionally good one. And they had candy, nuts, oranges and apples, and lots of other good things...It is such things as this that lessens the hardship of being so far from home and kin on these occasions, and the mine management is to be commended for thus remembering its employees.” 
J. Axel - NPS 1906 Wages: $150/month Superintendent $35/month Cook $4/day Blacksmith $3.50/day Timberman/Engineer $3/day Miners/Ore Sorters 1906 Boarding (Lodging and meals) $1 per employee per day. However, the superintendent and the cooks were not charged for food or lodging. Employees who had their own tent were only charged for food. Mine work was very lucrative back then. Living on site with no way to spend wages, employees could save up large sums. If they didn’t send money to their family back home, they used it to buy a farm, livestock, or a wagon. Even with inflation, the cost of living was much lower back then compared to today. Adjusted for inflation in 2023, if the cooks worked without a day off, they would have earned about $1,000 per month today. The superintendent would have made over $4,000 per month. Food and lodging would cost a little over $27 per day.
Prior to World War 1, the number of on-site employees varied between 7 and 23 but increased to over 80 employees at the height of the World War 1 copper boom. When the superintendent hired new employees he would pay for a stagecoach, also known as a jitney, to bring them out. The trip took two to three days in each direction from St. George and cost between $5 and $7.40 per passenger ($150-$200 today). Miners usually stayed for 6 months. Some help was more transient, however, as new miners found out how hard the work actually was. Superintendent Callaway wrote to mine owner Walter Jennings in 1913: “Ralph Keate and another hobo dropped in here the other day wanting work so I put one in the raise and the other in the drift on (the) 200 (foot) level. I don’t think I will have to keep them very long but if they can hold (the job) down and do the work I will be glad to keep them as (mining) is a tough proposition. (The job) is as tough as they come.” In an addendum written the next day, Callaway told Jennings, “One of the hoboes quit this a.m. They usually stay 10 days but 3 was enough for him.” The mine’s goings on were periodically featured in newspaper reports. These usually centered around the value of the ore, new bridges, or road washouts. However, a controversial episode occurred in 1917 when typhoid fever was going around. Typhoid fever is a bacterial infection from drinking contaminated water or eating undercooked food containing the bacteria. Washington County News, August 2, 1917: “An epidemic of Typhoid fever at the mine...the cooks are down with it...the (mine) should be avoided.” This was countered the next week: “...conditions at the mine are not as bad as reported...the men who were said to have Typhoid didn’t have it...Superintendent Callaway turned out the whole force (60 men) at the mine for a thorough cleaning.” Superintendent Callaway sent a sharply worded letter that was published the following week: “I will admit that there has been a few cases of (Typhoid) developed here...I positively know that there was two cases of the fever that broke out here was from (St. George) boys and I don’t think that either of them has had a bath while they were here...there hasn’t been a case of the fever with any of my cooks...and if there was a health inspector...they would find things in a more sanitary condition than 50% of the dwellings in St. George.” 
J. Axel - NPS Transportation costs could make or break a mine in a remote area like the Arizona Strip. Could on-site smelting separate the valuable metals from waste rock to reduce transportation costs? Smelting ore removes economically worthless minerals, called gangue, from copper ore. Getting rid of the gangue would reduce shipping costs significantly. One of the heaviest minerals in the ore that has no value is silica dioxide (quartz). Removing it could cut the weight of shipments by up to 50%. In 1878, the Morris and Evans company built a smelter. For a time, the smelter worked well. In 1881 mine owner Samuel Adams made the first shipment of 92% pure copper bars, weighing 1,766 pounds. He told a reporter that the smelter was producing 5,000 pounds of 92% pure copper daily. However, shortly after this time, smelting records and shipments of copper stopped. It is unknown what happened. There were vague references to the smelter not working properly. Smelters need to have the right airflow to reach high temperatures. This can be a challenge to get right. The men running the smelter had to understand chemistry and how to use various fluxes to separate metal from gangue. A report in 1913 stated that piles of slag made by this smelter in the 1880s were being shipped for re-processing because the slag still contained copper and silver. Slag should contain almost no metal. The mine owners returned to shipping high grade ore to more reliable industrial smelters in big cities for the duration of the mining years. Smelting efforts were abandoned at the mine. 
Curtis Frehner Shipping ore depended on the market price of copper. “A considerable tonnage of 18% ore is being stored for shipment when the market or transportation conditions are a little more favorable,” general manager Walter Jennings wrote in 1911, “while a product of 6 to 8% is piling up in huge dumps all around the property.” Initially the ore was transported in wagons pulled by mules or draft horses to Milford, Utah where the rail line ended. It was a 180-mile journey. By 1899 the rail line was extended to Modena, UT, cutting 40 miles from the trip. While 40 miles may not seem that far today, remember back then the ore was pulled by wagon at only a few miles an hour. For these long trips, ore had to be at least 45% copper to ship profitably. When the train line reached Moapa, NV in 1905, the distance was reduced to 73 miles. The mine owners paid for a road to be cut to the west down Grand Gulch Canyon (now the BLM1050 road) and across the Pakoon Basin to Moapa. This would lower shipping costs and increase profits even further. Ore that was as little as 30-35% copper could then be shipped. When a spur line was completed to St. Thomas, Nevada in 1912, the ore was taken to the train depot there. This was only 45 miles from the mine. This allowed ore with as little as 15% copper to be shipped. The St. Thomas spur was built by the railroad to pick up Grand Gulch mine ore, potash deposits (used to make fertilizer), and magnesite (iron) ore. The St. Thomas area was also becoming a source of melons and other agricultural products. The railroad company only used the spur line during the summer produce season. Copper ore sat in gunny sacks by the loading platform for months waiting for the train to arrive. A popular activity for travelers when the train stopped in Moapa was to cut into the gunny sacks to take colorful azurite and malachite ore home as souvenirs. Another problem reported by the Moapa railroad agent were the ‘hobos’ who untied the ore sacks and dumped out the rocks. The reason? They used the gunny sacks for soft bedding as they rode the rails. St. Thomas now lies within Lake Mead National Recreation Area. For several decades it was submerged. Over the last 20 years the lake has dropped below the level of St. Thomas, which is now accessible by a trail. 
Saurer Company There was more ore to be hauled than the trucks could handle, so mule and draft horse teams continued to transport ore to St. Thomas. With copper commanding high prices because of World War 1, the mine was shipping ore as fast as it could. According to freighter Harry Howell, “Along in 1916, 1917, and 1918 the Grand Gulch Trail was the scene of much activity. Sometimes there were as many as thirty or forty different outfits on the road at a time. These were mostly six, eight, ten, and twelve horse outfits and the average load was figured about a ton to a horse.” 
Photo courtesy of Andy Cattoir 
Image courtesy of Curtis Frehner The Grand Gulch mine’s production peaked during World War 1 following a worldwide surge in demand for copper. Prices were also climbing because of mass electrification of cities after the invention of the light bulb. For the first few years of the war, the US provided its allies with copper from mines like Grand Gulch. The US entered WW1 in April 1917, which further drove up copper prices. It eventually reached 36 cents per pound (approximately $8/lb. today). The price would have continued to climb had President Wilson not fixed the price of copper at 23.5 cents/lb. ($5/lb. today). This is higher than the current copper price of about $4.00/lb. 
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NPS Much of the revenue from the Grand Gulch mine ended up benefitting local freighters who transported the ore and the crews who build and maintained the roads. Mine investments resulted in improvements on the landscape that we enjoy today. Adjusted for inflation, it is likely that over a million dollars were spent on roads. Many of the roads in the monument were paid for in part by copper revenue, such as BLM1002, BLM1050 and BLM1007. The mine owners had no idea how much deeper the copper ran, so they invested in a dream of future wealth that was not to be. Things began to go downhill for the mine in 1918. Unfortunately, there was a fire that burned many of the support timbers on several of the mine levels. This same year World War 1 came to an end and copper prices collapsed. Whether the mine owners knew it or not, the final blow for the mine was simply that this rich copper deposit was played out. Peak ore production was in 1916. The next three years saw the volume of ore diminish substantially. When mining resumed for a short time in World War 2, there wasn’t much left below ground as seen from the mine’s copper production reports. In recent years, this conclusion has been backed up by geologic studies of other breccia pipes and the extent of their ore bodies. In this breccia pipe the ore deposit stopped at the 500-foot level. What were the people who lived and worked here talking about when prices for copper dropped after World War 1 ended? When the mine was closed in the fall of 1919, as people rode in the jitneys back to town, did they look back at the mine thinking they would be returning soon? What did the mine superintendent tell them? Perhaps he assured them the closure was just temporary, not knowing it would be his last day at the mine too. When the mine ceased activity in the fall of 1919, there was still perhaps a few million dollars (at 2024 prices) worth of copper in the low-grade ore piles that remained. The owners didn’t need to worry about it being stolen because moving it was too expensive. There was just no way to make money from the giant piles of low grade ore sitting at the mine at that time. New ore processing technology and transportation solutions were needed to avoid the problems that plagued the mine for half a century. Copper prices fell so low in 1920 the mine owners hired a lone watchman to guard the mine and its equipment. He was eventually let go too. There was an insignificant period of mining activity during World War 2 as copper prices rose temporarily, but there wasn’t much left to mine. It wasn’t until 1955 that the mine would see a final flurry of activity. 
J. Axel - NPS 
Belknap Photographic Services
The Mine Lives Again (1955-1961) By the 1950s, two new advancements finally made the low-grade ore that had been left in piles at the mine for over half a century profitable to process. The first was a solution to the transportation problem. Semi-trucks from World War 2 designed for off-pavement travel and economical over long distances were perfect for the remote Arizona Strip. The second advancement was wet chemical ore processing. Portable equipment was brought to the mine. Hot water chemical baths using sulfuric acid could extract the rest of the copper and silver from the low-grade ore. In 1955, Sam Mosher, with the Signal Oil and Gas Company, financed the operation. Records have not been located that show how much copper was extracted from this chemical process but the rumor was that the investors made a hefty profit. The company also drilled test holes to see if there were more ore bodies near the mine. They found nothing. The company also explored the site for uranium as part of the Cold War nuclear boom. Only faint traces of uranium were found. In 1961 the leaching operation processed the last of the ore. There was one last thing of value here; the mining equipment. It was worth about $1,000,000 in 2024 dollars. Everything that could be sold was transported to auction in Henderson, NV. By 1962 the Grand Gulch mine became a ghost town. Over the years grass fires burned many of the wood structures. After 90 years the story of the Grand Gulch mine had finally come to an end. 
J. Axel - NPS 
J. Axel - NPS 
J. Axel - NPS |
Last updated: July 23, 2024